The Department of Mathematics undergraduate program offers degrees in pure mathematics, applied and computational mathematics. The department also offers Master’s and Ph.D. degree programs.
The Department’s research areas are:
- Algebraic and Arithmetic Geometry: Toric geometry, linear subspaces of varieties, modular curves, rational points on hyperelliptic curves, geometry and arithmetic of surfaces, moduli spaces, abelian varieties, jacobians, picard and albanese varieties, geometric invariant theory, intersection theory, computational algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.
- Applied Combinatorics: Enumeration, random generation, parameter analysis, complex models.
- Applied Mathematics: Compressed sensing, computational fluid dynamics, numerical methods for PDEs on surfaces, signal processing, spectral methods, medical imaging, integral equation methods, adaptive mesh methods, differential equation models, atmospheric sciences, kinetic theory, fluid mechanics, fluid dynamics, cognitive science, mathematical biology and self-organizing behaviour, computational spectral theory, convergence and error analysis of numerical methods, nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations, hyperbolic and parabolic evolution equations, variational problems, geometric mechanics, symplectic integration, asymptotic analysis, mathematical modelling, dynamical systems and chaos (with applications including materials science, control theory, mathematical finance and traffic flow), level set methods, adaptive methods for PDE’s, evolutionary PDE’s, image processing, qualitative numerical methods for dynamical systems, nonlinear finite difference methods, linear and nonlinear algebraic equations, optimization problems, ordinary differential equations arising from PDE discretizations, numerical solution of analytic functions, numerical solution of ordinary and partial differential equations, mathematical psychology.
- Computer Algebra: Simplification of algebraic formulae, polynomial factorization and polynomial GCD computation, symbolic summation and integration, Groebner bases and ideal theoretic computations, symbolic solution of algebraic, ordinary and partial differential equations, high precision numerical differentiation and integration, recovery of formulae from floating point approximations, visualization of graphs, eigenvectors, vector fields, linear algebra over the integers and finite fields, computational (algebraic) number theory.
- Discrete Mathematics: Graph theory, enumeration, bioinformatics, coding theory, optimization, graph minors, design theory, digital communication, comparative genomics, experimental mathematics, algorithms, geometry, operations research, combinatorics, generating functions, finite fields, matroids, asymptotics, graph colouring, aperiodic autocorrelation, genome rearrangements, ancestral genome, architecture algorithms, enumeration, number theory, dynamical systems, non-commutative algebra geometry, Feynman graphs and multiple zeta values, log concavity, game theory, Ramsey theory.
- History of Mathematics: Biographies of mathematicians. Classic mathematical works from antiquity to 2000 (all cultures). Development of areas of mathematics such as analysis, differential equations, number theory, algebra, geometry, topology, applied mathematics. History of mathematics education at an advanced level: universities, institutions, foundations. Role of mathematics in society from an historical standpoint.
- Industrial Mathematics: Links between theoretical applied mathematics, numerical mathematics, and industry.
- Mathematics of Communications: Cryptography, coding theory, quantum information theory, sequence and array correlation, finite fields, steganography, combinatorial design theory.
- Number Theory: Algebraic number theory, analytic number theory, arithmetic geometry, diophantine equations, diophantine geometry, diophantine approximation, function fields, Drinfeld modules, rational points on curves and varieties, modular curves and surfaces, Shimura varieties, Langlands' program, additive and multiplicative number theory, representation theory, modular forms, automorphic forms, elliptic curves, hyperelliptic curves, transcendence theory, galois representations, distribution of primes, Riemann zeta function, L-functions, arithmetic dynamics.
- Operations Research: Analytics, continuous and discrete optimization, algorithms, approximation, linear programming, convex and conic programming, finance, statistics, game theory.
- Other Supporting Areas: Algebra, ring theory, group theory, real analysis, complex analysis, functional analysis, algebraic topology, differential geometry, measure theory, operator theory, harmonic analysis, ergodic theory, stochastic differential equations.
Collection intensity
- 4 Research Level
- A collection that contains the major published source materials required for doctoral study and independent research includes:
- A very extensive collection of general and specialized monographs and reference works.
- A very extensive collection of general and specialized periodicals.
- Extensive collections of appropriate foreign language materials.
- Extensive collections of the works of well-known authors as well as lesser-known authors.
- Defined access to a very extensive collection of owned or remotely accessed electronic resources, including bibliographic tools, texts, data set, journals, etc.
- Older material that is retained and systematically preserved to serve the needs of historical research.
- International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Section on Acquisition and Collection Development. (2001). Guidelines for a Collection Development Policy Using the Conspectus Model
- A collection that contains the major published source materials required for doctoral study and independent research includes:
- Collection development is the responsibility of the Mathematics Liaison Librarian. Liaison with the Department is maintained through the Departmental Representative as well as with other faculty members when required. Regular contact with other Liaison Librarians and teaching Departments is nurtured through the sharing of relevant review material.
SFU resources
The W.A.C. Bennett Library is the major location for the University’s mathematics collection.
Regional resources
The University of British Columbia also has a large mathematics collection comprehending many branches of the discipline.
Consortia and document delivery
- SFU belongs to three consortia:
- Electronic Library Network;
- Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries
- Canadian Association of Research Libraries.
- Document delivery agreements exist with all three of these consortia which allow delivery of journals, articles and books from these libraries in a timely manner
- Holdings and direct requesting from another 40+ libraries are accessible through the Interlibrary Loan webpage and from many databases.
- SFU is also an partner in the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.
General collection guidelines
- Language: the emphasis is on the acquisition of materials in English.
- Treatment of subject: history of, practical, political, computer applications, statistical/mathematical, economics of, business/mgt/admin, legal aspects, social aspects, teaching of college or postgraduate level, general.
- Types of materials: collecting is split between monographs and journals with a preference for ordering online-only journals whenever possible.
- Date of publication: emphasis is on current publications. Retrospective acquisitions are normally only for the replacement of important titles which have deteriorated or disappeared.